1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication (“DECT”) systems and to activating telephony services.
2. Background Art
Typical telephone systems involve a cumbersome manual process for a telecommunication service provider to provide telephony services to a user (i.e., a customer) premises such that the user is able to make and receive calls over a communication network. For example, such a manual process includes the user contacting the service provider via a phone, a portal, a retailer, etc., to request telephony services. An installation professional then physically arrives at the user premises and performs the necessary steps for provisioning the telephony services. Additionally, the user has to accept the service provider's terms and conditions for providing the telephony services by signing documents and/or providing concurrence on-line.
Drawbacks associated with this process include the following. The end-to-end time for installation and service activation is long (on the order of days or weeks). A possibility of error exists due to involvement of manual steps such that additional visits by the installer may be needed. Professional manual installation has high operational costs and depends on the availability of both the user and the installer. A back-log of installation requests to accommodate many users is often created resulting in delay in providing telephony services to the users.
A process for a service provider to provide telephony services to a user premises which alleviates drawbacks associated with using an installation professional includes the following. The user contacts the service provider to request the telephony services. In turn, the service provider dispatches a self-install kit having a modem to the user in place of the installation professional visiting the user premises. The user plugs the modem into the communication network at the user premises. The user then notes requisite information of the modem such as its media access control (“MAC”) address and provides this information to the service provider. A support team of the service provider uses this information to perform the provisioning steps to activate the telephony services at the user premises.
Drawbacks associated with this process include the following. The steps involved in the installation of the self-install kit require that the user have sufficient knowledge of the modem and instructions for its installation. The process of the user observing and conveying the MAC address, which is a twelve digit alpha numeric ID, along with other requisite information to the service provider can be difficult and error prone. Lack of this knowledge stalls the installation process and requires support from an installation professional which induces delay. The activation process requires live support from the support team.
Upon telephony services being activated at the user premises, the user is able to make and receive calls over the communication network using a telephone connected to the modem. The telephone may include a base station and a cordless handset. The base station is connected with the modem for the user to make and receive calls via the communication network. The cordless telephone can be moved around and away from the base station within a given area and receive and send data to the base station which is representative of incoming and outgoing calls respectively. Such telephones which include a base station and a cordless handset may be part of a Digital Enhanced Cordless Telecommunication (“DECT”) system.